Praise be our Goddess Madoka, for She died for our sins and gave us hope

Shinichiro is still reeling from the revelations of yesterday, and wonders if he’ll have to give up on Hiromi when he realizes that he was intending to do so anyways. At school, he is approached by Noe with a bentou, hanging from his belt, again and declines it.

Surprisingly, Noe tells him she wants to be with him and share his problems, since it will be better that way, but again, he declines it, telling her that she won’t understand it anyways.

This leaves Noe sulking at the chicken coop and she looks for Hiromi at the gym. She offers her bentou to her, and even feeds her. Noe flat out tells Hiromi to apologize to Shinichiro, since she’s the one who’s stopping him from flying. The situation escalates to a catfight, broken up only when Shinichiro appears.

Hiromi runs off, and Shinichiro confronts Noe about what happened, and she tells him, that she wants to understand him more and more. Shinichiro realizes Noe likes him, in a romantic way, and tells her that… which makes her blush up and run off when she realizes it too.

Later at night, Shinichiro is walking back home from dance practice with Ai-chan, when he is confronted by Jun again, asking him if he’s going out with Noe already, since he’s already went out with Hiromi, telling him if he doesn’t keep his end of the bargain, he won’t keep his either.

Meanwhile, Ai-chan is wondering about what Jun said, when a text message arrives from Nobuse. She meets him at the shrine, with Miyokichi acting as if nothing has happened, but she tells him that she isn’t deserving of his feelings. Yet, Nobuse says that the only thing he has is her..

Shin returns home in time to interrupt his mom from confronting Hiromi, and his father asks him if he has heard anything from his mother, which he replies “Nope”. He wonders about the bargain, Hiromi and Noe, especially since today’s events. He realizes he has been thinking about Hiromi too much to notice Noe’s feelings, and decides to go out with Noe.

At the Isurugi’s, Jun returns home to a darkened house, with Noe kneeling at the window. Noe says she’s changed and she is feeling hot all over her body, and she can’t look at Shinichiro’s face at all. Jun assures her that it’s fine, that this change is for the better and essential.

The next day, snow starts to fall. Lunch time comes and Shinichiro invites Nobuse for lunch, but he declines. Nobuse mentions that he’s cool, and if it’s him, it’s fine… which creeps Shinichiro out.

Shinichiro proceeds to look for Noe at the chicken coop, but she runs off when she sees him. Shinichiro finally catches her, asking her why is she running countered by Noe asking him why is he looking for her. Finally Shinichiro asks her out, with Noe telling her to do it properly and also write it out on the ground with stones. Shinichiro manages to complete it, with the help of Noe’s gloves. Noe feels like crying and realizes it’s not because of sadness, but because of happiness and Shinichiro realizes that Noe is truly in love with her.

“Noe ga suki dayo!”

After school, Shinichiro heads over to Ai-chan’s shop as usual, and he tells her about him going out with Noe, which leaves Ai-chan in a temporary shock. She recovers soon however, and gives Shinichiro a shock too, kissing him without warning, and she professes her love for him as well, astounding him.

Giving a temporary respite to Hiromi’s arc, this episode mainly focuses on Noe, with Ai-chan thrown in to the mixer as well.

First thing to say is… Noe was really cute this episode. As I’ve said previously, she didn’t realize what her feelings towards Shinichiro were, and finally finds out, surprisingly from Shinichiro himself. The scenes where Shinichiro says that was really awesome, with her rendered speechless and blushing, running away from him.

The confession scene too was cute as well, and I must say, she turned tsun-tsun-dere-dere for a minute there, lol. Making her blush that hard is really criminal, because it made me giggle a lot.

But that said… Shinichiro’s just trying to find a replacement to forget about Hiromi, which is definitely going to lead for some serious heartbreak in poor Noe, if they decide to fully go down Hiromi’s route.

Another factor to take in place now is Ai-chan as well. Ai-chan’s confession comes on pretty suddenly as well, which really did throw me off for a while there, coming right after the confession between Shinichiro and Noe.

It’s not really surprising since Ai-chan’s been really suffering for all that while, trying to take her step forward with Shinchiro yet still being seen as Nobuse’s girlfriend, but hearing that from Shinchiro definitely pushed her off the edge. Ai-chan’s definitely going to receive some flak here for her indecisiveness.

In terms of what I think of this episode, I’m definitely a bit disappointed of the lack of Hiromi, yet Noe more than made it up for the show. But it also really shows how much this show is dependent on Hiromi, since the sense of “depth” and “drama” comes off rather lacking this episode.

The preview for next week shows Hiromi confronting Mrs. Nakagami, Noe in the chicken coop and Hiromi riding together with Jun. I don’t we’ll discover the truth behind Hiromi’s parentage yet, but it seems she’ll be taking a step further with Jun.

Soriel Said,

It’s interesting that Shinichiro is doing what Ai-chan did, going out with Noe to bury his own feelings, which parallels with Ai-chan going out with Nobuse.

Ai-chan is definitely the dark-horse of the 3 (in the sense that i dont think anyone is really counting on her to be able to snag Shin away from the other 2) but I think she’s the most interesting and most human of the 3 girls.

Endz Said,

If ever Shin will choose either Ai or Noe, I bet that Hiromi will be revealed as his half-sister. If Shin will choose Hiromi, it means that she is not his half-sister. That I believe is the stereotypical ending for such complicated harems(Wish ~a breath of heart~ did this, that is if you use the imotou ending. Also, Crescendo used this plot-line as well if you go to the onee-chan route).

It is quite a common occurance in anime/eroge/manga that it disgusts me when they use this type of plot-line(I detest incest… So there)

While Noe was really cute this ep, the revelations of her cluelessness in love actually unveiled some of that mystic that makes her so attractive. It’s amazing that for one who’s so astute in observing people’s true intents, she’s so dull to love. Reminds me of geniuses who are low in EQ. Hiromi climbed to become my top bishoujo with TT this ep. She’s incredibly strong to live in the Nakagami household.

Syaoran Li Said,

EmOtakuVu Said,

I’m starting to really hope that Shin’s new “relationship” with Noe will prove to be the real deal, if for no other reason than I don’t want to see cute and sweet Noe sad! However, my gut tells me that even if things end up with a Shin/Noe pairing, dear little Noe is gonna have to weather a few rough patches cause I think Hiromi is still gonna have a few roles to play in all this.

It was interesting to see Shin questioning himself about weather he really liked Noe or if he was just trying to get over Hiromi. Normally you don’t see male characters in that situation actually have some degree of self-awareness about that. They just usually charge forward. Granted, he went ahead and told Noe he liked her anyways, but I’m wondering if maybe he is also waking to true feelings towards her that were buried under his affection for Hiromi. It’s not like he can’t like both genuinely.

Unlike a lot of people, I really like Ai, and I agree that of the 3 girls she is the most human. Noe is eccentric and cute and Hiromi is elegant and tragic, but both are not realistic. Ai is. She’s just a sweet real girl, who happens to be in a tough romantic spot. Gotta love her for all that.

And man, Miyukichi is the man! He knows the truth about Ai’s feelings, and probably has for a long time. But he knows what he wants, accepts her, and just tries to be with her. And he doesn’t resent his best bud for how Ai feels, afterall, not like Shin had any clue. In most series Miyu would have tried to take it out on Shin. Way to go Miyu!

Can’t wait to see how this all works out. Every option is still on the table!

Ipsod Said,

Asdf, if such behavior displayed by high schoolers is inconceivable to you, I’d like to visit your high school. Every student was considerate of each others feelings, yes? And had the same upbringing. So therefore they all got along.

I’ve also noticed that a lot of people are picking which out of the three girls are more.. “human”. Is it really such a keen observation to say that due to only visibly maintaining character traits, that one can determine which is more human? The more emotions are hidden from view, the more human you are. The more emotions you reveal to surrounding peers, the more human you are. Which ever one of these perspectives is chosen, it cannot see the other.

Talk about contradictions. Jeebus chrystler.

Justine Said,

Ok… I personally think that Shin likes Noe in his own way, and he could fall in love with her, but if there will be later revealed that Hiromi isn’t actually his sister, he will come back to Hiromi. As for Ai-chan I think that she will eventually see how much she means to Miyukichi and she will forget about Shin. Jun… well I do understand that he loves Noe and he wants to do everything, so she could be happy, but… his methods really aren’t good… and I can’t make myself to like him…

Dirian Said,

Looks like Noe and Ai-chan are on the warpath in earnest now, just waiting for Hiromi to find out she isn’t really Shin’s sister and we’ll have a full fledged battle royale on our hands.

I for one can’t wait, but gogo Ai-chan just for being the dark horse!

If I had to make a guess, I’d say that if they try to go with a happy ending type of route we’ll get Shin x Noe, Jun x Hiromi, and Nobuse x Ai-chan.

But since I’m not really getting a happy ending vibe from this show, I’m betting instead it’s going to be bloody as hell and I can’t think WHO will end up with Shin(and I’m torn anyway between Noe and Ai-chan).

asdf Said,

“Asdf, if such behavior displayed by high schoolers is inconceivable to you, I’d like to visit your high school.”

I’m attending a high school where everyone DOES NOT act like that. Seriously, that girl (is she even human?) doesn’t even know what “going out” is – but even the most in-a-cave-student at my school knows that, and even my friends – who are all like 4.3 GPA students – meaning that they should not know very much about dating – knows. And she wants Hiromi to – what – APOLOGIZE?! – because she thinks Hiromi made him not look at the sky or something…? I mean seriously – that girl must have some huge mental issues. I was actually hoping that Hiromi would kick some sense into that girl (literally) during their cat fight.

“Every student was considerate of each others feelings, yes? And had the same upbringing. So therefore they all got along.”

Every student was considerate of each other’s feelings? What does that mean? We definitely were nice to each other but we seriously couldn’t have cared less about each other’s…err…feelings…sounds a little gooey

Had the same upbringing? Oh… I do wish…

No offense – btw – peace!

JohnG Said,

Yeah, in the real world no one would date Noe because Noe is batshit insane. I knew some people when I was in high school who had ‘alternative’ views of the world similar to Noe… these people were outcasts who everyone avoided because of their weirdness. However, from the view of random anime viewer, Noe is cute and moe and whatever and everyone wants to hug her. I kinda wanted to hug her during the Shin confession scene, but my real high school self would have been scared as hell of socializing with her at all, much less going out with her.

[...] of valor. Considering how Nobuse could have gone bat shit insane over this I have to disagree with Kurogane that the lack of Hiromi invited a lack of tension and drama, Nobuse’s ignominious defeat was a [...]

Chaos2Frozen Said,

“Yeah, in the real world no one would date Noe because Noe is batshit insane. I knew some people when I was in high school who had ‘alternative’ views of the world similar to Noe… these people were outcasts who everyone avoided because of their weirdness. ”

I used to believe that, but I now know from experience that in this “real world”, that are rare “normal” individuals who aren’t bothered by weird acts at all.

Sounds like a fairy tale? Well the truth is stranger… After all, most of them are just interesting people, like Noe they’re not dangerous or anything.

Ipsod Said,

Hrm. If I think about it, the words Noe that seems to be making everyone think she’s batshit insane aren’t particuarly weird to me. Must mean my own high-school experience was more fucked up than I imagined. :(

Either that, or working at a bar close to Skid Row is making me jaded to the extreme eccentricities of society.

asdf Said,

“She’s odd. She’s unusual. She’s eccentric. That does not equals to her being insane.”

Actually – she’s not any of those qualities you’ve described above. She knows exactly what she’s doing (well, most of the time). I’m not disliking her because she’s strange – I actually like how some strange people act – I’m disliking her because of her poor judgment, stupidity, ignorance, and lack of common sense.

A simple example would be – she knows she’s going to fall of that tree when she gets down – but she goes up anyway.

Cipher Said,

*“I’m disliking her because of her poor judgment, stupidity, ignorance, and lack of common sense.”

- And yet she could tell Hiromi’s true feelings towards her back in the earlier episodes.*

To be fair, Noe did show poor judgement in getting into that argument with Hiromi. Regardless of her mindset and intentions, how she handled the whole situation was disrespectful towards Hiromi’s situation and Shinichiro’s request for privacy as well. And really, she cannot expect words like “You can never fly” and “It’s such a waste that Shinichiro is brooding over you” to go down well with Hiromi. That was pretty much a downright request for a catfight.

So it sort of balances out. She may be a genius in reading other people’s emotions, but she reacts very poorly to them, considering how she has such insight. She may not be ignorant, but her actions can be disputed to be of poor judgment and not following common logic.

asdf Said,

“Have you considered why she goes up? She did it to get bird seeds for the chicken. It is something that she wants to do herself, don’t tell me you don’t have that feeling before?”

Well, if she wanted to do it herself, why did she force Shin to help her down? That’s not exactly DOING IT HERSELF, isn’t it? I also have a feeling that since she repeatedly goes up there and repeatedly gets stuck – it’s almost as if she’s expecting Shin to come everyday during lunch to help her down. Also – has she thought that since the chickens belong to the school – it would be COMMON SENSE for there to be chicken feed ON THE SCHOOL GROUNDS. Because, seriously, those seeds from the tree branches are not really that higher from the regular crops. Come to think of it, is she even allowed to feed them?

And as for her being able to tell that Hiromi didn’t really want to be her friend – well, it’s not really rocket science, is it? If a stranger you’ve never talked to you before suddenly popped up and said “I want to be your friend,” (even writing this is giving me chills) then, err, I REALLY don’t think you’ll say “GREAT! LET’S BE FRIENDS!” You’ll have to be extremely retarded to not sense the hidden purpose under that friendly volunteer.